FO: Birthday Birdie Sorrel

Oh my gosh I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted! I've been on a mission to get my estate sale done ever since I posted my socks, but I had this post already lined up waiting and just completely forgot to put it up. So I actually made this last month :) The sale was this last weekend though and I am now trying to ease back into a somewhat normal life, so expect to see more posts (and probably more silly bird fabrics, lol). So here we go!

On my birthday this year (back in June) I got to do a little splurging on some Doodles fabric before going out to dinner with my mom. I mean, we were eating right across the street ... we had to go in! I was good and only got two lengths of cotton interlock for t-shirts - the green birds for my Swirly Birds top and this bird and flower print. I justified this because a) they were half price b) I knew exactly what I would make with them and they would be quick projects and c) it was my freakin' birthday, ok? Personal justifications aside, I knew this print would be great as another fun Sorrel Top, channeling the total cutesy factor of my Forest Friends Sorrel. I've had the habit lately of putting all my stuff together on my Kollabora page to keep me motivated, and this top is a perfect example of that. It's like because I made it a project profile already, it was next in line to make. Funny how that works.

I love this pattern for novelty prints! It's also nice for fancy fabrics that you don't want to buy much yardage of - not that this is a "fancy" fabric by any means, but it's nice that the main body pieces for the top in the largest size fit nicely onto 1 yard of 58-60" wide fabric. You will end up with scraps when you're done too, which just feels very satisfying. I did have one little snaffoo with the fabric though this time. I asked for 1 yard, but just before cutting out my top I noticed it looked a little short. They only gave me 32"! What?! Come on, Joann's. How hard is it to get it at the 1 yard mark? I've had it happen where the cut line isn't straight making you get not quite what you asked for, but this was just flat out 4 inches short of a yard. I squeaked by, but I had to piece the underarm of one of the sleeves. Moral of the story - measure your stuff right when you get home so you can do something about it if you're shorted. End rant.

I went with my favorite elbow length sleeves with curved cuffs again because they are just awesome. The pattern also includes plain sleeves, but seriously why have plain sleeves when you can have these cool cuffs, right? I originally planned on making my cuffs and collar out of white Laguna jersey, but out of the 3 other times I've used this pattern, 2 of them have white collars. I just really wanted to switch it up this time. I dug through my stash and pulled out this buttery yellow cotton interlock I bought at a thrift store for $1 a yard a year or so ago. I bought it to make muslins with at the time because I just couldn't imagine wearing such a pastel color with my skin tone, but it works great as an accent color. It's not exactly as bright a yellow as the bird fabric, but it's close enough that I don't mind it and I don't think anyone else will either (if they do, they're a jerk. just sayin', lol).

I played around with the length on this top a bit. I've noticed lately that several of my shirts are longer in the back, almost like a high-lo looking hem, which tells me I need to make the front longer for my body. I lengthen the body pieces to eliminate the hem band anyway, so this time I made the front a full 2 inches longer while I only extended the back by about 5/8ths, then when sewing the body together I matched up the waist notches and then stretched the back fabric evenly from the waist down to make the bottom edges match up at the sides. I really like how this fits! The length seems pretty perfect, so I think I will continue to so the same thing on future iterations (because let's face it, there will be more of these ...). This also seems to have helped with my slight sway back, oddly enough.

I'm also thrilled with my collar stitching this time around. The key to this collar is to really slow town and take your time when attaching the facing. You sew the facing to the collar at the neck hole, then fold it over and secure it by stitching in the ditch all the way around the collar itself. One slip up and it looks home made. I also discovered last time around that it's better to match your top stitching thread to the body fabric (it helps the seam blend into the background), so this time I used a purpley blue thread on top with the buttery yellow in the bobbin (which was an old serger cone I was given years ago that I never thought I'd use - it matched perfectly, lol).

Speaking of the collar, isn't it cute?! This is my first time making up the symmetrical collar option on this pattern, and I mostly just did it to switch things up a bit. This is a very distinct pattern (especially in the crazy prints I make it with), so I don't want it to look like my uniform (though that would not be bad in my book if I needed a uniform, haha). Anyway, so this is the symmetrical collar, which seems like it's thinner just because of how it sits on the neck, but it is actually the exact same collar pieces shifted to meet in the middle instead of off center. It's cute, and I certainly won't rule it out in the future (I still want to make my own version of the black and white striped version in the pattern samples), but I really prefer the asymmetrical collar on me. If you're going super cutesy and different, might as well go all the way I say. I still love this shirt though, make no mistake. I love that it's a little different but still fun. That's me in a nut shell: different but fun :)

This is an awful picture, but it shows the piecing I had to do under the sleeve. It looks a lot like an underarm gusset but it's only on one sleeve. My sister couldn't even make it out when I showed her in person and she also sews, so I'm not all that worried about it. I just sewed a scrap piece to the area of the fabric that needed it before I cut out the sleeve, then finished the edges and pressed the seam open, then cut the sleeve piece. I don't even feel it when worn, which is good. It's just the memory of being shorted 4 inches of fabric that will haunt me. Rrrr....

So that's my newest Sorrel Top :) Man, I love this pattern. I keep checking but it looks like this pattern is still not available to buy. I got it as part of the Sewing Indie month bundle last year as an exclusive release, but she mentioned at the time that the pattern would be released individually later on. I'm thinking something must have happened to her? Sewing Indie month kind of fizzled out mid month. No winners were ever announced, no more blog posts, etc. Anyone know what happened? It's really such a shame because I love her patterns and I'd love for more people to be able to make this cute top. I'd be really interested if anyone knows anything :) Thanks!

So there's my latest fun t-shirt :) It's been a fun and comfy shirt to wear in all the hubbub of my last few weeks. It helped to still feel like me in the midst of being dirty and hot and sorting through piles of old stuff for hours on end, so that's a win in my opinion. I will confess I now have another one of these planned for an occasion in the next few weeks, lol. Man, I love this pattern. I can't wait!

Summary:
Fabric: 1 yard (actually 32", grr...) of Doodles brand cotton interlock from Joann's - $7.00, 1/4 yard of yellow cotton interlock (thrifted) - $0.25
Pattern: Sorrel Top by Seamster Patterns
Notions: knit interfacing - $0.25, thread (purple and yellow) - $1.00, woolly nylon thread - $0.50
Time: 4 hours
Total Cost: $ 9.00